Daily Office:
Monday
Morning
¶ Murcans: Send this clip to every friend that you have. Every enemy. Every body! A vote for the Democratic Party is a vote against the Republican Star Chamber.
Noon
¶ Carlin: Social critic and funny man George Carlin dead of heart failure, aged 71.
¶ Housebroken: Even the House at Goodwood is a course — something of a steeplechase.
Night
¶ The Awful Truth: As Avenue Q taught us, the Internet is primarily good for porn. With Google as a yardstick of community standards, expect a lot of bugs-under-a-rock-squirming.
Oremus…
Morning, cont’d
§ Murcans. But what I really want to talk about is the Turner detail in the header. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen one of Turner’s Venice paintings before, but getting up close to this one at the Huntington Museum made me think a very surprising — and, then, not so surprising — thought: Giambattista Tiepolo. It’s a long way from the Wurzburg ceiling to the Téméraire, yes, but, suddenly, not an unimaginable one.
Noon, cont’d
§ Carlin. I was not a big fan, but that’s neither here nor there: George Carlin clearly carried his society toward a new framework that did not depend upon the fetishes of respectability. When you think that the comedian started out, just like everyone else, in jacket and tie, you begin to have an idea of how remote the world of 1960 is now.
§ Housebroken. This little clip of Dougie Lampkin prancing through a stately home would yield an interesting “Making Of” documentary. For example, what were the insurance negotiations like?
Night
§ Awful Truth. Not that anybody, checking out his favorite porn sites, thinks that he might be helping to establish “community standards.” As we know but too well, a pole-dance-addicted board of aldermen won’t think twice about denying everyone else access to the fun. Ever since Susannah had to defend herself against the Elders, patriarchal hypocrisy has proved to be a rank nest that any sane person would think twice about before poking.